Advent—Peace—Day 10

What to write, what to say, scrap that and throw it away. Nothing’s working today. 

Sounds like you’re a poet and didn’t know it.

Surely you can think of something to say about peace. After all, it’s almost Christmas, the most peaceful time of the year? Right? Silent Night, all is calm, all is bright, blah blah blah. 

Tell that to the weather, because the clouds and the cold are anything but bright. Can’t even see the moon and the stars at night for the fog and the drizzle. 

But it sure is silent. All the katydids, bullfrogs, and whippoorwills have hibernated or migrated, and you wish you could have done the same.

Tap fingers on notebook. Doodle. Stare out the window. 

Type a little more. Check the time for the Christmas party. Oh no. It starts earlier than you thought. 

Fly into action. Hum a tune that’s decided to take up residence in your brain while you slam your computer and notebook down on the countertop. Almost take out the lamp that should be turned on and giving the good vibes of the holiday season, or at least enough artificial light to counter the sleepiness that lingers long on cold, dark winter days.

And we’ve not even made it to January.

You bang pots and pans to attempt to feel better. Throw the cup of butter in the saucepan and watch it melt, and top it with a cup of packed brown sugar, some of which spilled on the countertop and the floor, gritty beneath your feet. Break the graham crackers into fourths and place them on your lined and sprayed baking sheet.

The saucepan concoction has started bubbling, so you stir, stir, stir for three minutes and then dump it on your crackers and cuss, cuss, cuss because it’s setting up too quickly. The pecans and toffee mixture are clumping rather than spreading.

You think it is a ruined mess.

You erupt into song, the lyrics of the tune spilling out into the kitchen, just as haphazardly as the broken pieces of graham cracker remnants and sandy sugar that’s sticking to the bottom of your socks.

“Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me!”

It is sung in frustration, loudly and not sweetly, not quietly. It is sung, not as an anthem to peace, but as a lament to your failed toffee cracker candy, to your stuck writing ideas, to the clouds and the drizzle.

You move on, washing the hardened bits of toffee out of the saucepan, for it is your favorite cooking pot and you need it for the next dish—which also appears, at first glance, to be another epic fail.

You move on, because somehow you always find a way to pull it together. You know the tricks of the kitchen, and if all else fails, just add more cheese.

You move on, and you see the toffee topping bubbling and spreading in the oven, just the way it’s supposed to do.

You move on, and you keep humming the tune. The kitchen work has slowed, and you decide to look up the lyrics.

Before you find them, you find the story of the one who wrote them. Time slows, and then stops, as you read of the personal struggles recounted by Jill Jackson, the lyricist:

“When I attempted suicide [in 1944] and I didn’t succeed,” she said, “I knew for the first time unconditional love—which God is. You are totally loved, totally accepted, just the way you are. In that moment I was not allowed to die, and something happened to me, which is very difficult to explain. I had an eternal moment of truth, in which I knew I was loved, and I knew I was here for a purpose.”

You keep humming the tune, and although you read the rest of the lyrics, they just don’t stick. So you keep repeating the original line, and as you do, the hardened bits of frustration melt away like snow under a warm sun.

“Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.”

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Romans 12:18 NIV

That includes you.

And it for sure includes me.

Oh, and your toffee cracker candy turned out just fine. 

So does your little story about finding some peace.

---

Reflection and Prayer: When the frustrations of life pile up, how do you maintain a peaceful mind? Does reciting Scripture or a line from a song help? Ask God to intervene in times of anger, annoyance, or inconvenience by reminding you of His promises. Trust that He will show you how to have peace despite your feelings or circumstances.